919. As the area of real, true knowledge of our own selves becomes larger and larger, we also acquire a correspondingly larger and larger known field from which we can assess what lies outside this field. The tendencies and qualities that have become facts within ourselves are the very ones we become expert at assessing in others, that is to say, outside our own area. The more familiar we are with a certain mental quality, such as "love", the better we can assess this quality when we meet it outside our own selves, as a reflection of the life in other beings or in Nature. The qualities we do not have within our own self, or know absolutely nothing about, we are quite naturally unable to assess or understand straight away when we meet them in others. And it is this phenomenon that is the deepest root of all the misery or so-called "evil" in the world. This root is, as we have seen, "immaturity" or ignorance, which is in turn the same as the being's unfinished state in the great process of creation. But, as with all other forms of immaturity, the being's cosmic "immaturity" can be removed only through growth. And growth can be manifested only through nourishment. And nourishment of the being's cosmic "immaturity" is nothing other than personally experienced experiences and their placing and utilisation under guidance or instruction. And as the lives of terrestrial human beings constitute to such an enormous extent precisely the manifestation of this very "nourishment" of the cosmic "immaturity", it becomes clear why Christ refers to the "hell-fire" all those who cannot understand him and are therefore against his mission, his ideals and precepts. This fire is nothing less than the beings' personal experience of the unpleasant effects of the imperfection in their own actions or their state of being in opposition to the law of neighbourly love. "Hell-fire" is thus precisely the personal experience that the being cannot possibly receive in any other way, such as through guidance or instruction.
      In order to be receptive to guidance or instruction, one must be in possession of a certain amount of personally experienced material that can give rise in one's consciousness to the question "why". For unless one is animated by this "why", one is not hungry for an explanation or a solution to the question in a given situation. And in a situation in which one has no experience and is still not in contact with this "why", one is unaware of one's ignorance, considering oneself to be enough of an authority in the field in question, and sometimes as a result, in blind zeal, drawing mistaken conclusions, without having the slightest inkling of the naivety and ignorance that one is thereby revealing to beings that have long ago through their own personal experience passed that particular field or area of experience. It is beings such as these, who demonstrate imaginary knowledge and authority, that in everyday life are seen as "quarrelsome". They are intolerant and find fault with everyone else's opinions, while proclaiming their own self-deluded perfections to all and sundry, thereby confirming to the genuinely wise or truly knowledgeable being their total inability to accept theoretical instruction or guidance in the field concerned. And what can a wise person or one with genuine authority do, other than refer such a being to "hell-fire", which is the same as, life's own teaching or speaking to him through the formation of his own fate.
      When the world redeemer refers the being who is unable to accept theoretical instruction and guidance to the "hell-fire", it is, as we have seen, not at all out of a spirit of vindictiveness towards the quarrelsome person, but due to the fact that there is no other way. The quarrelsome person will through life's own speech, that is to say through his own experiences, eventually experience his mental ineptitude and consequently feel a sense of helplessness in the particular area. And this experience will in turn cause the being to ask, humbly and unpretentiously, "why", a question that is absolutely necessary if any theoretical guidance or helping hand is to be given by the visionary, the sage or the world redeemer.